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Sunday, June 14, 2015

The Tornado Bowl

The Nebraska Region SCCA hosted a 2-day Rallycross event over the weekend that was a ton of fun! While I was only able to make it to the 2nd day, I still had a lot of fun with my RS Coupe in the dirt. Recent rain had made the Nebraska clay pretty sticky but, with lots of grass and weeds growing on the site, grip levels could quickly change. When you weren't on the moist clay, the matted down grass and weeds made for slippery corners, so it was difficult gauging grip levels on the first few runs. Turnout was lower than the other events I had attended this year, but the drivers were all top-notch!

My co-driver for the event was a fellow RS owner whom I have known for awhile. He made the 2-hour trip down to help me sling this Coupe through the dirt and we had a great time as usual. While he's a talented driver, we both tend to make mistakes sometimes. However, instead of getting frustrated with less-than-ideal situations, we laugh and have a good time with it. Whether we nailed an awesome time or spent up precious seconds going sideways dodging a cone, it was grins and laughs and fun times the whole day.

A testament to that fun happened when my co-driver was going a tad wide in a long turn through some deep weeds and dirt. We made it through the run without too much of a fight but were quickly notified once we arrived at the pits that we were missing our rear bumper. We laughed and assumed it was a joke until we saw one of the corner workers carrying a silver bumper cover up the hill. The clips and zip ties had snapped when the bumper was tugged off in that wide turn and, amidst all the fun, we didn't even realize we had lost it! It should be an easy fix to get back on and, in true rallycross fashion, we refitted the RS with the bumper again with some more zip ties to get it home.

For the event, my RS Coupe was sporting 50% of the rally livery that was planned. We ran out of vinyl and time this weekend and couldn't complete the look just yet, but we'll finish things up once another roll of dark gray 3M Vinyl arrives. The stripes on the passenger front and the panel on the drivers rear side were complete and looked great! Now we just need to mirror those sides and wrap it up... literally!

Aside from a Miata, a VW Beetle, and a Mitsubishi EVO, the rest of the field was dominated by a familiar brand to rallycross. Subarus were in force at the event and, much to my surprise, mostly older models too! There's certainly a rally heritage with Subaru, so it's not unusual to see many of them at events like this. Perhaps it was due to the thinner turnout, but there was definitely a strong Subaru showing at this event!

While the typical June humidity made for a sweaty event, everything ran smoothly with the entire event. The NRSCCA has a great rallycross program and it's been a lot of fun being more involved with it this year. It's also been more fun seeing other newer drivers taking the reigns and getting hooked on it! It not only helps this sport grow, but also reminds seasoned drivers of the spark and excitement they had when they started out.